Moist and fluffy marble cake made from scratch doesn't have to be complicated. Many times, you guys have asked me for an easy marble cake recipe that did not require two cake recipes. After a lot of testing, I finally have the PERFECT recipe for you based on my ever-popular vanilla cake recipe!
What makes this cake so amazing is all you have to do is make the vanilla cake and then flavor part of the cake with my chocolate mixture to make the chocolate batter then swirl it all together! Simple!
Pair it with chocolate frosting and ganache drip and you've got yourself a vanilla and chocolate lover's dream cake!
What's In This Blog Post
Marble Cake Ingredients
Buttermilk - Buttermilk adds moisture, delicate texture, and flavor to the cake. If you do not have buttermilk, you can make your own using my preferred buttermilk substitutes.
Cake flour - Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour. What this means is that when you use cake flour in your cake recipe, your cake will be more tender and have a softer crumb.
PRO TIP: Do not fall for the “just add cornstarch to regular flour” trick. It does not work for this recipe. Your cake will look and taste like cornbread.
If you’re in the UK search for Shipton mills soft cake and pastry flour or flour that has a protein level of 9% or less.
Cake Batter Instructions
- Prepare three 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan spray. Preheat the oven to 335ºF (168ºC).
- Bring your butter, milk, and eggs to room temperature. It’s really important when making a cake for the ingredients to all be slightly warm so they create an emulsion.
- Heat the water until it’s simmering and then combine it with your cocoa powder.
- Stir it until the cocoa powder is moistened. It will look lumpy, but that is normal.
- Set it aside and let it cool while you prepare the cake batter.
- In a separate container, combine ¾ cup of the milk and the oil together and set it aside.
- In a separate container, combine the remaining milk, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract together. Whisk it to break up the eggs, and then set it aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with the paddle attachment. Mix for 10 seconds to combine everything.
- Add your softened butter to the flour mixture and mix on low until the mixture resembles coarse sand (this takes about 30 seconds). This style of mixing is called the reverse creaming method, and it will result in a very velvety, moist cake. A lot of my other cake recipes like brown butter cake and white velvet buttermilk cake use this method.
- Add in your milk/oil mixture and mix it on low until the dry ingredients are moistened.
- Increase the speed to medium (setting 2 on my Bosch Mixer, setting 4 on a KitchenAid) and let it mix for 2 minutes to develop the cake's structure. If you don't let your cake mix on this step, your cake could collapse.
- Scrape your bowl and then reduce the speed to low.
- Add in your egg mixture in three batches, letting the batter mix for 15 seconds between additions.
- Scrape down the sides again to make sure everything has incorporated.
Marbling the Cake Batter Step-by-Step
- Take out ⅓ of your batter and combine it with the cooled chocolate mixture and fold it gently until it's combined.
- Layer your batter into your pans, starting with vanilla, then chocolate, and ending with vanilla.
- Use a butter knife to swirl them together gently to create the marbling effect. Do not over-mix or your cake will not have a marbled interior.
- Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes at 335ºF (168ºC) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly (but the cake has not begun to shrink yet from the sides of the pan). IMMEDIATELY TAP THE PAN FIRMLY on the countertop once to release the steam from the cake. This stops the cake from shrinking. Your bake time may vary depending on your oven and the size of cake pans you use.
- Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes inside of the pan before flipping them out. The cake will shrink a bit and that is normal.
- Flip the cake onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely. I chill my cakes before handling them, or you can wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them to trap moisture in the cake.
- Thaw the cake on the countertop while it's still wrapped before frosting.
How to Make Ganache Frosting
- Place your chocolate into a heatproof bowl.
- Heat your cream until it just begins to simmer. Do not boil it or your ganache will be grainy.
- Pour the hot cream over your chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Add your vanilla and salt to the chocolate mixture and whisk it until it's smooth and creamy.
- Pour your ganache into a shallow pan and let it cool to peanut butter consistency. Mine takes about 20 minutes to thicken up.
- Frost your cake with the ganache and then place it in the fridge for 20 minutes. This cake also pairs well with easy buttercream or chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.
- Dust it with cocoa powder using a soft (new) makeup brush to make the velvet texture.
Ganache Drip Instructions
- Heat the cream until it's just steaming, and then pour it over chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Whisk it until it's smooth.
- Let it cool until it's slightly warm to the touch before piping it onto your CHILLED cake.
Decorating Step-by-Step
If you need to learn more or are new to cake decorating, check out my blog post on how to decorate your first cake step-by-step.
- Place your first cake layer onto your cake plate, and then spread on a layer of the ganache about ¼" thick. Repeat this step with the last two cake layers. I like using ganache because it's super stable and delicious, but chocolate buttercream or easy buttercream would also pair well.
- Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of ganache. This is called the crumb coat.
- Then, put the entire cake in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Prepare your chocolate drip and let it cool to 90ºF (32ºC).
- Apply your final layer of ganache and smooth it out with your offset spatula and bench scraper.
- Using a soft (new) makeup brush, apply some cocoa powder to the outside of the ganache to make it look like it has a velvet texture.
- Put your drip ganache into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- Drip the ganache all the way around the top of the cake and finish it off with sprinkles.
What is marble cake made of?
Marble cake is made when you add a small amount of dark-colored batter to light-colored batter, and then lightly mix it to give the cake a marbled appearance.
Why is it called a marble cake?
The idea of marbling two different colored batters into a cake originated in nineteenth-century Germany. Marble cake made its way to America with German immigrants before the Civil War. Originally, the cakes were marbled with molasses and spices.
In 1889, a recipe appeared in a popular cookbook that took advantage of Americans' obsession with chocolate and replaced molasses with chocolate. Thus, the popular marble cake that we know about today was born.
During the 50's all the way through the 70's, bakeries in New York were adding almond extract to their marble cake batter as a signature flavor and sometimes referred to it as German marble cake. This was originally more of a snacking cake meant to be sliced and served without frosting and eaten with tea or coffee.
FAQ
Surprisingly, I get this question a lot. This recipe is meant to be baked in three 8" x 2" cake pans so that you get three nice layers of cake in each slice. But you can definitely use other sizes of cake pans like a ¼ sheet pan or square pans.
You may need to increase or decrease the recipe to fit the size of your pan.
You can also use this recipe to make cupcakes, but it makes a lot! My cupcakes baked at 350ºF for 15 minutes but you should bake them until the center bounces back when you touch it.
Yes, you may use a bundt pan or a loaf pan. Just follow the same process of taking out ⅓ of the batter and adding in the bloomed cocoa powder to make the vanilla cake batter chocolate.
Yes, you can. But you will need to create a homemade buttermilk substitute first using regular milk along with other ingredients. There are several buttermilk substitutes I would recommend in place of buttermilk for this recipe.
Whenever you're introducing cocoa powder into a cake recipe, it can dry the cake out. You can avoid dry cake when you bloom your cocoa powder before mixing it with your vanilla cake batter.
Blooming is when you combine the cocoa powder with hot water, coffee or cold oil and let it sit for a few minutes until it starts to look spongy. Now that the cocoa powder is moistened, it won't suck up all the moisture from your vanilla cake batter.
Your oven temperature was most likely too high. Check your oven with an oven thermometer and reduce the temperature accordingly if it is running hotter than you need it to be.
More Cake Recipes You'll Love
Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Marble Cake Ingredients
- 16 ounces cake flour
- 16 ounces granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 5 ounces vegetable oil
- 14 ounces buttermilk room temperature or slightly warm
- 8 ounces butter unsalted and softened
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ounce cocoa powder dutch or natural
- 3 ounces hot water
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder for dusting
Ganache Frosting
- 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 16 ounces heavy whipping cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Ganache Drip
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 4 ounces heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Cake Batter Instructions
- Prepare three 8″x2″ cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan spray. Preheat your oven to 335ºF (168ºC).
- Bring your butter, milk, and eggs to room temperature. It’s really important when making a cake for the ingredients to all be slightly warm so they create an emulsion.
- Heat the water until it’s simmering and then combine it with your cocoa powder.
- Stir it until the cocoa powder is moistened. It will look lumpy, but that is normal.
- Set it aside and let it cool while you prepare the cake batter.
- In a separate container, combine ¾ cup of the milk and the oil together and set it aside.
- In a separate container, combine the remaining milk, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract together. Whisk it to break up the eggs, and then set it aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with the paddle attachment. Mix for 10 seconds to combine everything.
- Add your softened butter to the flour mixture and mix on low until the mixture resembles coarse sand (this takes about 30 seconds). This style of mixing is called the reverse creaming method, and it will result in a very velvety, moist cake. A lot of my other cake recipes like brown butter cake and white velvet buttermilk cake use this method.
- Add in your milk/oil mixture and mix it on low until the dry ingredients are moistened.
- Increase the speed to medium (setting 2 on my Bosch Mixer, setting 4 on a KitchenAid) and let it mix for 2 minutes to develop the cake’s structure. If you don’t let your cake mix on this step, your cake could collapse.
- Scrape your bowl and then reduce the speed to low.
- Add in your egg mixture in three batches, letting the batter mix for 15 seconds between additions.
- Scrape down the sides again to make sure everything has incorporated.
Marbling the Cake Batter Instructions
- Take out ⅓ of your batter and combine it with the cooled chocolate mixture and fold it gently until it’s combined.
- Layer your batter into your pans, starting with vanilla, then chocolate, and ending with vanilla.
- Use a butter knife to swirl them together gently. Do not over-mix or your cake will not have a marbled interior.
- Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes at 335ºF (168ºC) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly (but the cake has not begun to shrink yet from the sides of the pan). IMMEDIATELY TAP THE PAN FIRMLY on the countertop once to release the steam from the cake. This stops the cake from shrinking.
- Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes inside of the pan before flipping them out. The cake will shrink a bit and that is normal.
- Flip the cake onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely. I chill my cakes before handling them, or you can wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them to trap moisture in the cake.
- Thaw the cake on the countertop while it’s still wrapped before frosting.
Ganache Frosting Instructions
- Place your chocolate into a heatproof bowl.
- Heat your cream until it just begins to simmer. Do not boil it or your ganache will be grainy.
- Pour the hot cream over your chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Add in your vanilla and salt to the chocolate mixture and whisk it until it’s smooth and creamy.
- Pour your ganache into a shallow pan and let it cool to peanut butter consistency. Mine takes about 20 minutes to thicken up.
- Frost your cake with the ganache and then place it into the fridge for 20 minutes. This cake also pairs well with easy buttercream or chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.
- Dust it with cocoa powder using a soft (new) makeup brush to make the velvet texture.
Ganache Drip Instructions
- Heat the cream until it’s just steaming, and then pour it over chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Whisk it until it’s smooth.
- Let it cool until it’s slightly warm to the touch before piping it onto your CHILLED cake.
Video
Notes
Cake flour sources: UK - Shipton Mills Cake & Pastry Flour
Pam says
I want to try your recipe but don't see the temperature you baked this cake at. I'm guessing 350 degrees F but some cake recipes are now baking at 325 degrees F. Thanks for any help.
The Sugar Geek Show says
335ºF for 35-40 minutes 🙂
Angela says
If I wanted to get the same height out of this but in a 9inch diameter cake off hand how much more batter would I need? If you know off hand?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I would just increase the servings by 10 since a 9" isn't that much bigger than an 8"
katherine marriott says
Can this be made in 2 8"pans?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes you can use any size pan you would like
Lee says
Trying to make this but can’t get my hands on milk right now. Would almond milk work instead? Love your recipes!! Thank you!
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can absolutely use almond milk 🙂
Pamela says
If I try to make half of the recipe, would it change the texture??
I try half of your white velvet cake recipe since I was trying it for the first time. The taste of the cake is pretty great, but my consistency not so much 🙁
I would really like to hear your thoughts.
Thank you ?
Your cakes are amazing.
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can increase or decrease the amounts to anything you want. Just be sure to use the ingredients as listed, all room temp and follow the mixing instructions.
Krystal says
Hi
Can this be made by using 3 or 4, 6 inch pans, and how would I adjust the recipe?
Thank you in advance
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can use any size cake pan that you desire. Just increase or decrease the amount of batter by adjusting the servings size in the recipe card
Gaya Kumar says
Hi Liz!! I'm big fan of your recipes. I almost use your recipes. I really wanna make this cake for my son's birthday. I would like to know can I use unbleached cake flour instead of cake flour..? Please let me know. Thank you and stay safe.
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can if that's all you can get but unbleached cake flour is similar in gluten content to all-purpose flour so the texture of your cake will be a bit heavier like cornbread.
Kaetrin says
Hi Liz,
Is the oven temperature with fan or without?
thx!
The Sugar Geek Show says
No fan 🙂
Karen says
What egg substitute can I use instead of eggs?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Any commercial egg replacement will work 🙂
Kaetrin says
thank you! 🙂
Kaetrin says
Are your recipes generally no fan? (this will save me asking every time LOL!)
The Sugar Geek Show says
My oven doesn't even have a fan 😀
Miriam K says
Not sure what happened but my cake shrink after I remove from the oven, reducing like an inch after I finish 🙁
The Sugar Geek Show says
Sounds like your cake was over-baked. Some shrinking is normal though
Kd says
My ganache doesn’t look like peanut butter consistency. I followed the recipe. Maybe because I didn’t use a sheet pan?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Just keep letting it cool until it reaches the peanut butter consistency stage
Jaclyn G. says
Hello! At one point, for the crumb coat, you say "buttercream". Did you mean ganache or does this recipe call for chocolate buttercream also? Thanks!
The Sugar Geek Show says
oops! force of habit, I meant ganache 🙂
Pamela says
Hi, I just have one question cause I don't have your type of mixer.. I have de classic one, a sunbeam mixer so I'm afraid to do a mess when I add the butter to de the dry ingredients so I wanna know if I can do it in another way more you manual without using the mixer.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Adding butter shouldn't make a mess. You can cut the butter in by hand but it will take longer.
Mary says
In order to get two 8x2" and two 6x2" cakes to make a small tiered birthday cake, could I get by with just this amount, or would I need to make a batch and a half and just have some left over batter?
Thanks so much!!!
The Sugar Geek Show says
I would do a batch and a half
Millie says
The cake turned out delicious! What a great recipe. It's was soft, moist and had a great flavor with the marbling. I just struggled with the ganache, it thickened slightly but nowhere near peanuts butter consistency. Next time, I'll probably mix it for longer.
Elizabeth Marek says
It needs to cool for longer. It can take a few hours depending on how hot it is outside.
Thiwanka says
Hi Liz,
Would it be possible to add the whole batter to 8" ×4" pan and how different will be the baking time?
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you can, it will just take much longer to bake
Vams says
Will this marble cake taste good with your chocolate fudge frosting from your easy chocolate cake recipe?
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes it would
Dawn says
Hi! I’ve never made one of your cakes. This is the first time I’ve found you. I was wondering if I can use a healthier oil in place of the vegetable oil. Thank you in advance. 😊
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you sure can
Maru says
Followed the chocolate ganache recipe in here and it’s not reaching peanut butter consistency after 1 hour. After seeing your video of how to make this, I figured this recipe of marbled cake is not following the 2:1 ratio... is this why my ganache failed???
Elizabeth Marek says
It can take hours and hours. Mine takes about 6 hours.
Vams says
By how many servings do I adjust the serving card to make 2 8" round cakes? (Btw I can't see any of the older comments when I click on the button that says older comments. Can you please fix that?)
Elizabeth Marek says
The comments should load in without having to click anything. Try refreshing the page. The cake already makes two 8" rounds
Vams says
does it make exactly 2 8" inch round or does it also make extra?
Elizabeth Marek says
It makes exactly two 8" rounds
Thiwanka Perera says
Hi Liz, I made this cake for an order. So yummy. I have one question tho. My cake had a bend mark around the cake. Why is that?
Elizabeth Marek says
It could have been a little over-baked which causes the cake to shrink or it could be your cake pans if you're using wilton cake pans
Alicia says
Hi Liz! I want to make this cake but I can't get any cake flour☹️. Can I just use Ap flour?
Elizabeth Marek says
You can follow this same process but use my white cake recipe as a base 🙂